The Breakdown | Fiji and the beautiful south reveal rugby’s soul but northern money talks loudest

They’re present in every top-flight club in Europe. They pack down for teams in France and Scotland. They run the show from half-back in England and Italy. They provide heft through the midfield and dazzle out wide in Ireland and Wales.There are 257 of them in total, drawn from 12 nations including Chile, Zimbabwe and the Cook Islands

Death in the strike zone: the mysterious fate of James Creighton, baseball’s first star

The Civil War provides a host of baseball-related mysteries pertaining to pitcher James Creighton. By the time of his death at age 21 in 1862, Creighton had compiled a ledger of accomplishments, starring for one of America’s top teams at the time, the Brooklyn Excelsiors. His grave became a shrine to the player and the sport he dominated. Then the clouds came in – over the circumstances of his death, over the achievements of his career. He is not in the Hall of Fame, but baseball historian Thomas Gilbert makes a convincing case for his inclusion in a new book, Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America’s First Baseball Hero

Molly Miller, ‘pretty privilege’ and women’s basketball’s beauty trap

Arizona State’s head coach has turned around a losing program. Unsurprisingly, much of the discourse on the internet was not based on her leadership skillsSign up for WNBA 30: a limited run women’s basketball newsletterIn March 2025, the Arizona State women’s basketball team were looking for a coach who could end a drought that had seen them go without a NCAA Tournament appearance – or even a winning season – since 2019-20.The choice was Molly Miller, a proven and successful head coach at Grand Canyon. Miller had led the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance and a 32–3 record in her final season with the team – a benchmark for the program and an important accomplishment within the broader scope of college basketball. She soon turned around Arizona State, leading them to a 24-11 record and a first appearance at the NCAA Tournament in six years

Victoria Mboko and Mirra Andreeva lead new generation of friendly rivals

Victoria Mboko and Mirra Andreeva, the two highest-ranked teenagers in the world, prepared for their marquee Miami Open fourth-round match in an unusual manner. Aside from being the two protagonists of the freshest rivalry in women’s tennis, they are also great friends, and so they spent the afternoon before their big match against each other competing on the same side of the net in doubles.This was an opportunity to giggle, relax and enjoy themselves on one of the smaller courts in Miami, but Mboko and Andreeva are ranked No 9 and No 10 in the world for a reason. Two fiercely competitive beings determined to win every time on the court, they fought desperately and emerged with an impressive result. After trailing 0-5 against the eighth seeds, Demi Schuurs and Ellen Perez, in the opening set and facing eight set points scattered across the set, they somehow emerged from the match with a straight-sets win

ECB has taken a risk keeping McCullum and Key – who must now placate the public | Ali Martin

Having endorsed Brendon McCullum’s continuation as men’s head coach after an Ashes defeat riddled with self‑owns and kept Rob Key above him as team director, the England and Wales Cricket Board could in one sense be viewed as having taken the path of least resistance.McCullum’s contract runs to the end of 2027 and it would cost a pretty penny to cut him loose. The players enjoy the pair’s methods and tend to call the shots in the modern era. There may not be an all-format candidate for head coach out there. Besides, look over there: the Hundred returns in July, ready to overload your eyeballs with multicoloured content

‘It may not be popular’: England stand by McCullum and Key despite Ashes debacle

Brendon McCullum and Rob Key have been backed to lead England’s response to the grisly winter Ashes defeat in Australia, with Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, insisting that while it may not be a popular decision it is the right one.At Lord’s on Monday, and with Key, the managing director of cricket, sitting next to him, Gould stressed that lessons have been learned from the 4-1 defeat and that the head coach in particular is willing to “adapt” and “evolve” his style. Even with an appetite for change among the public, the status quo holds, as revealed exclusively by the Guardian this month.Later in the day the Test captain, Ben Stokes, endorsed the ECB’s decision in an expletive-filled open letter to supporters on Instagram.Gould said: “We do keep a very close eye on all of our supporters